Rights: EU Condemns Iran on Human Rights

“The European Union continues to be gravely concerned at the continued and numerous violations of human rights in Iran,” Ireland, the current holder of the EU presidency, said in a statement issued on Sunday. “The EU statement on human rights violations was “hypocritical,” Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi said. “The European Union continues to be gravely concerned at the continued and numerous violations of human rights in Iran,” Ireland, the current holder of the EU presidency, said in a statement issued on Sunday. The four rounds of EU-Iran human rights roundtables, the last which was held in Tehran early last week, had “no concrete results,” the statement, released in Tehran by the Irish embassy, said. The EU delegation called for the “immediate and definitive” release of 40 political prisoners in meetings last week with judiciary officials. Rights violations cited by the statement include, “unequal rights for women; the use of torture in prisons and other places of detention, and a culture of impunity for perpetrators; the lack of an independent judiciary; the use of the death penalty, as well as reports of the continued use of amputations and other cruel punishments; a continuing campaign against journalists and others who seek to exercise their freedom of opinion and expression, a flawed electoral process which impedes the democratic choice of the Iranian people, and discrimination on religious grounds.” The statement noted, “The EU... underlined that the purpose of the dialogue was to bring about an improvement in the human rights situation in Iran. This is indispensable for the development of wider and eventually closer relations between the EU and Iran.”
“The EU statement on human rights violations was “hypocritical,” Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi said. The EU human rights delegation praised the conditions of Iranian prisons which they visited, but the EU statement contradicts that, which is due to pressures from the “arrogant governments.”
European governments should learn human rights from Iran, Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi said. The international human rights enovys praise everything when they are in Iran, but condemn everything, as soon as they leave Iran, he added.